Release roundup: Cases, coolers, memory, and an overclocking event

This week in our roundup of miscellaneous announcements, we have news of fresh products from Corsair and Thermaltake. We also have the skinny on an open overclocking competition from Gigabyte. (Yes, there are freebies on offer. No, there are no products being announced. We're doing this roundup freestyle, baby.)

Corsair unleashes Vengeance Extreme memory kits. Let's start with an insane halo product from the nice folks at Corsair. The Vengeance Extreme 8GB DDR3 dual-channel kit includes two 4GB modules, which are both rated for operation at 3,000MHz with 12-14-14-36 timings and a 1.65V signal voltage. Despite their speed, the modules are clad with low-profile heat spreaders—though Corsair includes a Kingpin Cooling, uh, cooler for folks who want to get their LN2 on. Pros: these are the "world's fastest rated production PC memory kits," according to Corsair. Cons: they cost $749.99 and are available only in limited quantities.

Gigabyte launches 'Dig for Victory' contest at HWBOT. This isn't a product announcement—more of a PSA. Gigabyte's "Dig for Victory" open overclocking competition is running until April 12 at HWBOT.org, and it's open to the public. Folks apparently need the new 3DMark, AMD Trinity and Bulldozer processors, and Radeon HD 5000-series GPUs to participate. There are two stages in the competition, and gold medalists for each stage are eligible to receive a Gigabyte 990FXA-UD5 motherboard (pictured below) and an AMD FX-8350 processor. Check this page for more details.

Thermaltake releases Chaser A71 gaming case. The new Chaser A71 chassis is "inspired by the major motion picture Tron," according to Thermaltake, which explains the blue LED fans and that curious-looking front panel. This is definitely a feature-packed gaming case, though. It has five internal hard-drive bays (each capable of accommodating 3.5" or 2.5" drives), one top-mounted 2.5"/3.5" docking station, dual USB 3.0 front-panel ports, and even a little tray on top for your knick-knacks. Cooling is handled by a 120-mm rear fan and two 200-mm front fans, and users can install additional fans on the side and at the top. Oh, and there's room for a 240-mm radiator. Not bad, right?

Experience the whole new Non-interference Cooler series from Thermaltake. If you want your CPU coolers to uphold the Prime Directive, then look no further. Thermaltake's Non-interference Cooler family is also designed not to interfere with super-tall memory modules in high-end gaming PCs. Thermaltake offers F3, F4, C4, and C5 variants, which are designed to dissipate up to 160W, 180W, 200W, and 230W of energy, respectively. The coolers also feature nickel-coated copper bases, 6-mm heat pipes, 0.4-mm aluminum fins, and either one or two 120-mm PWM fans, depending on the model.

Yeah, I'm not sure who would spend 750 bucks on a single memory kit. You can build a pretty solid gaming PC for less than that. But I guess bragging rights (and potential victories in overclocking competitions) come at a cost.